When Woolworths was busy in Cornmarket Street in Oxford

Fifteen years after the chain went into administration CEO Roman Heini, who is expanding Woolworth Germany in Europe, says the UK is next on his list for potential expansion.

It's an opportunity to look back at how Woolworths was launched in the city and how it closed for good.

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Many years ago, an American visitor to Oxford bought an impressive photograph of a horse-drawn stagecoach outside a hotel.

He has now written from his home in Pennsylvania to ask - “where was it taken?”

It is a well-known picture which we highlighted in one of our earliest Memory Lane features in 1996 with the headline, ‘Grand old lady that finally went to ruin’.

The famous picture of the stagecoach outside the Clarendon Hotel in Cornmarket Street, Oxford

It was, of course, the Clarendon Hotel which once graced Cornmarket Street - where Woolworths traded before the Clarendon Centre was built.

The ‘Clarry’ as it was called and its predecessor, The Star, provided high-class service to the travelling gentry for more than 500 years.

The Star became the Clarendon in 1863 when new directors, including poet Matthew Arnold, took over.

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It closed in 1939 - the last function was the Oxford Press Ball. During the war, it was used for military work and afterwards by Government departments.

Meanwhile, battle raged over its future.

Would the rundown Clarry reopen or be pulled down?

And would Morris Garages which occupied the site behind - formerly stables for the horses which pulled the stagecoaches - be forced to move?

Oxford City Council refused planning permission to build a Woolworth store on the site because, it said, the city needed hotel rooms.

But opponents argued at a three-day public inquiry in 1952 that the building was so rundown that it was economically impossible to turn it into a modern hotel.

The Minister of Housing and Local Government, Harold Macmillan, later Prime Minister, ruled in Woolworth’s favour, a decision described as a disaster for Oxford by the mayor, Mr A B Brown.

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The hotel was pulled down and Morris Garages’ depot closed.

The new Woolworth store, replacing a smaller one across the road where Boots now stands, opened to great acclaim in 1957.

The Cornmarket Street store in 1962

At the official opening, company chairman Mr R J Berridge handed the mayor, Alderman R F Knight, a cheque for £500 for the Oxford Historic Buildings Fund - a new building helping the old.

The Oxford Mail heralded the arrival of the new store with a 12-page supplement - and a crowd of 200 queued to be the first inside.

Christmas shopping crowds in 1979

It came as a big shock to staff and shoppers when the company announced the store’s closure on March 10, 1982.

The Oxford Mail headlines said it all - ‘Woolies checks out’ and ‘Angry traders say council is killing off Oxford’.

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The company said the store was “in profit but not making a satisfactory return on investments”.

It closed in January 1983.

Shoppers outside the store in 1982 after the closure announcement

The closing-down sale was so successful the store shut a day earlier than expected.

Chief cashier Viola Hancock sheds a tear as the store closes in 1983 after her 40 years’ service

Staff held a farewell party at Cowley Workers’ Social Club.

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

You can also read his weekly Traffic and Transport newsletter.